Parachute Stress Test
| Published: Dec 14, 2013
A few weeks back a customer stress tested our IFC-144-S parachute for a load of 2000lb. It passed!
In case you have ever wondered how strong our parachutes are, this article will answer your curiosity. One of our key customers is designing our chutes into their UAVs as a backup recovery system. The UAVs are very expensive and carry high value imaging sensors or other payloads. Per system acceptance protocol, the parachutes had to pass a rigorous stress test of 1688lb of pull.
Representatives from the company and Fruity Chutes (myself included) teamed up to perform the test. To distribute the load evenly across the canopy's skirt, we attached loops onto the chute canopy. We skewed the attachment toward the outside to cause a 70/30 load distribution between the outside lines of the skirt and the apex center pull-down lines.
The parachute passed the 1688lb test, but we didn't stop there. Going above and beyond, we increased the load all the way up to 2000lb, and the parachute passed!
The tested parachute uses the same materials as all our Iris Ultra Parachutes, from the small IFC-30-S up to the behemoth IFC-192-S.
The photo above shows the parachute stretched out attached to the load harness. The load harness distributes the test load evenly across the entire canopy.
In the close-up photos, we can see the shroud lines and load harness connections.
To secure the connections, reinforcement tape was attached the canopy. This parachute has 14 gores, so there are 14 attachment points.
